Trust Fall
by Ceciliavonjoy
Summary: ((Based loosely on Shattered Crystal, some allusions to the show and Rise of Lyric)) Shadow doesn't want a team like that idiot Sonic, doesn't need anyone. But he ends up injured. Will he be able to stop being a prideful grump long enough to let someone help him?
1. In my headcanon Shadow Canyon is huge

Shadow looked down into the canyon that shared his name, sheltered by a short overhang, planning a route to stretch his legs. The air was hot and dry, all stifling, the sun beating down on the craggy sandstone. The hedgehog himself stayed in the shade as much as possible. His dark fur near guaranteed he'd overheat in a summer like this. Even the cave he would seclude himself in to sleep as a kind of home- as far away from Eggman's pollution as he could manage, but packed with supplies he stole- wasn't deep enough to ward off the heat.

He welcomed it, if with the occasional grumble. No one else would go through handling the heat to bother him. It allowed him to practice his skills as he pleased without interruption. Become even stronger than he already was.

The black hedgehog leapt into the ravine. He landed on the other side and pumped his legs to jump again, faster. Again and again, cursing when he stumbled, hardly satisfied with even the smoothest of landings.

His progress neared the end of the canyon's windings. Here the walls separated so far, even he couldn't jump across them. They expanded into a flat clearing of sorts, land that had cracked and dried eons ago. This clearing ended at a towering ivory gate to an ancient city familiar to him. The hedgehog paused on an exposed shelf. Hot as hell. Shadow panted and wiped at his brow. Could usually get here and back without exerting himself too hard. The heat shouldn't stop him from-

He looked up at rumbling overhead. Rocks tumbled down the cliff side, bearing down on him.

The hedgehog darted back to a lower outcrop in the rock wall. The stones thudded into the shelf he had just left, stones tumbling past to the ravine floor.

Harsh grinding emitted from the wall behind him. He hopped farther, higher this time, and whipped back his head to look. An enormous red drill whirred its way back through the hole it had made in his canyon. It retracted too early for him to react by demolishing it.

Shadow glanced again at the factory at the top and thought he knew the cause. That pathetic old Egg, going out of the way to be his problem today.

The rock shuddered under his feet, making him stumble before regaining his footing. The vibrations were coming from-

He leapt forwards and the drill burst through where he had just been. Aiming for him. It whirred back faster. The rock wall shook again. It kept coming from behind him. Head back so it'll overshoot.

He jumped up to an outcrop the way he came. Landed and - too late - the vibrations were stronger. Shadow dropped to a ball and the drill punched through the rock above his head. Stones pelted his head and back. He snapped his eyes shut at the dust and- roaring so loud above his head his bones reverberated- clapped at his ears. The whirling spikes left no room to move out of the way.

The shelf shifted and cracked away below his feet. The roaring of the drill faded as Shadow fell. Spun to drag at the air whistling around him and stinging the scratches on his back. Nothing out far enough to catch him. Have to settle for the bottom.

Shadow twisted around to maneuver his feet back underneath him. He hit the ground awkwardly and a spike of pain in his left leg made him fall forward gasping.

"Gnn-" He pushed his torso up and turned back his head to see the throbbing leg. In the back of his mind, he knew it was pointless to see how his shin bent at a strange angle. The pain was enough to tell him it had fractured.

Broken leg. Bottom of a ravine. Had no food or water. Nobody was fool enough to pass through here, not now. Not that he needed- he was-… Pain and heat blurred his thoughts. Nothing he could do to lessen it.

Terrible odds. He groaned beneath their weight but did not let himself lie down. Giving up was not allowed. Deal with this as he had everything else. Could crawl the distance to the ancient city gate and find shade.

First thing, setting the leg. Have to remember how to do it. Last time was years ago, a mere child with a broken arm from some accident. Somebody else had set it- old friend. Maria.

Shadow shook his head to clear the aching memory. No revisiting that now. She was long gone. He had been self-sufficient for too long to desire a stop to it now.

Enough. This was going to hurt. He rolled over to a sitting position, gritting his teeth at every screaming protest of his leg. Shadow dragged himself backwards with his hands and leaned against the wall of the canyon's mouth. There. Passing out wouldn't crack his head on top of everything else.

He wiped his brow and gripped his shin. Just pushing it into place not enough, he remembered-... The hedgehog braced himself, tense in every muscle, and yanked.

A snap into place and an anguished cry shot out and faded off, short-lived. Shadow fell back into the wall and slid unconscious to the rocky ground.


	2. The fast and the chilliest

A blue blur shot through a course of tangled foliage and yellowed crumbled pillars. His course danced around the more recent but equally ruined robot factory. Nothing could be heard there but the frenetic tapping of feet. A strip of white tape on one arm not quite fastened flapped in the wind.

He was in a rare state, alone. The old instinct came out still, demanding that he exert his speed past a normal pace. Keeping his friends alongside him and the focus of defeating Eggman (again) often kept him too busy to think of it. If these both fell away, Sonic ran.

Man, it felt great to stretch his legs and be out. Relaxing, even in this boiling heat. Tails dealt with it by building more air conditioners. Amy and Sticks lounged inside with fans while he was building the air conditioners. Knuckles- Sonic laughed to think of it- had dug a deep hole and sat in it. Had even invited everybody else to share the hole with him. Sonic had hopped in out of boredom. It _was_ less hot down there, but too cramped for his liking. Running with the wind in his quills and under the shade of the forest, so much better, now kept him cool.

Lost count of how many times he had circled the ruin. Now he wanted to race. Sonic shifted gears down a notch for the turn and changed course. The plants in the ancient city he circuited ceased to shake in the wind. The lofty ivory gate blinked and he was through, only looking straight ahead.

Shadow Canyon. He snorted. How wacky of a coincidence was that? Sonic jumped through the usual platforms of the canyon. His feet did the thinking for where or how to jump or stop. How many landforms could there be that just so happened to have your name on it? It wasn't as if he had run into Metal at, like…Metal Sonic Mountain.

The blue hedgehog dashed down the narrowing ravine and laughed at his own joke. Metal Sonic Mountain. That would have been impossible to take seriously-

Mr. Serious. Sonic screeched to a halt. In a way, he'd gone backwards. The silver enerbeam slingshot to the junkyard stood at the start of the canyon. Where was Shadow? All he had to do to draw the black hedgehog out was to arrive alone and run around, and he had. Just like last time.

Maybe something was wrong.

He took a step back into the canyon and then reconsidered. The guy hung out by himself in a gorge. If Sonic himself had alone days, Shadow might take weeks, even months for solitude. And it had been weeks since the last time. Could just be a bad day for racing.

Sonic blinked and realized how sweaty he was, so much hotter here on exposed rock. Phew. The heat wasn't so bad a reason.

That was probably it. Made the most sense, anyway. Maybe he'd go running back home on the coast. Not in the water, definitely not in the water, but on the beach, misted by the cool ocean spray. That sounded real good right about now.

He ignored the enerbeam slingshot and leaned forward into a marathon-starting stance. He would take the long way.

This time Sonic accelerated into a spindash, whirling to the bottom first. He sprinted at the cooler ravine floor. The tapping of feet slowed as he went; even he got tired. The sun grew brighter upon him as the cliffs fell into the lower sides of the well-worn clearing. There was the gate! And glorious shade-

The blue hedgehog chanced to look aside and skidded to a stop.

He didn't have to see the crumpled black figure up close to know who it was. He jogged towards that spot by the wall and slid to a kneeling stop. Shadow lay limp on his left side, his limbs sprawled outward on top of each other. In this heat and nothing to lean on but rock, no way he just fell asleep.

Sonic shifted to sit and think. Had somebody gotten the drop on Shadow? Lyric had somehow, that one time. How hadn't he noticed the mind-control thingy or the roboty way Shadow was acting? It had been pretty obvious...

Oh well. Should wake him up; see if he's all right. And then get yelled at for 'disturbing his superior', or whatever that thing was Shadow went on about. Sonic rolled his eyes. Whatever. So what if they weren't exactly friends. There was no way he would or could leave pretending he hadn't seen anything.

He gripped the black hedgehog's right shoulder and shook him.

An arm swung at him. Sonic jerked back to avoid it and caught himself by the fingertips. Shadow opened his eyes blearily.

"Mnn…" He blinked and twitched his head. And glowered on seeing who woke him. "You again?" Shadow growled, hoarse, annoyed. Eh, so what else was new?

Sonic leaned forwards to sit normal again. "Yyyep. Me again." He said, somewhere between also irritated and amused. "Man, we keep meeting like this." His hand fanned himself and then stopped since it didn't help much. "Did somebody else knock you out this time, or…?" He waved his hands around trying to come up with an 'or'.

Shadow pushed himself up from the ground and leaned against the wall with a grunt, not answering the question. Ran one hand across his damp forehead. "What _are _you-" He grimaced and hissed at something midsentence. Sonic stretched up to look for it and started.

Had to listen to instinct more. Shadow's left leg was swollen; mottled purple bruising only just visible under black fur. Looked like it hurt bad. How hadn't he seen that earlier? "Geez…" Sonic began, a little startled, "Your leg looks awful."

The black hedgehog twitched his right leg inwards, unwilling or unable to move the injured left one. "I'm dealing with it." If he was in pain, he did a good job sounding frustrated instead.

"Ok, but-" Sonic glanced down at the leg and up again, and winced in sympathy. "Eugh, I don't think it's supposed to bend that way."

"What do you care?" Shadow shot at him, bristling. The question probably wasn't literal. The other meaning was clear: Leave me alone.

Well, no, not gonna do that. Sonic was silent for a moment. There were scorpions larger than his feet around. Sure, they scuttled on top of the cliffs, not down here. Prickly-proud Shadow was not a pitiable figure, but _anyone _unable to move and left exposed to driller worms, robots, and this heat…

"Er. Busted legs really suck." Sonic decided to say, as if forced to point out the obvious. Stopping to be choosy with words helped his patience. "And if you could stand," He couldn't help but quip, "you'd be long gone by now."

Shadow was silent, but his face twitched in a way that indicated either grudging agreement or pain. Both, maybe.

That was good enough. Sonic hopped to his feet and snatched Shadow's arm. The black hedgehog barked in alarm at the sudden tug, his feet scrambling to support him. Sonic stood up and slung Shadow's arm over his shoulder. The injured leg swung between the two, Shadow instinctively clinging to Sonic to keep from falling.

"Alright, you admitted it," Sonic said. He shifted the other hedgehog's arm a bit. "Now let's go."

Shadow tore himself away, throwing Sonic off and falling away to latch onto the rock wall. "I did not agree to anything," He growled, "You of all people are not helping me."

The blue hedgehog just looked at him and shook his head, scarcely believing it. "Guhhh…" Veins of frustrations deepened the blue hedgehog's voice. "Do you have a problem with /me/, or do you just hate..." He waggled his hands in midair, unable to pin down anything. "…uh. Something?"

Ok that was lame. Shadow glared at him and wasn't about to fill in the blank.

Still gonna do this. "Ok. I don't know what your deal is," He glanced down and pointed at the swelling on Shadow's leg. "But you are not getting anywhere on that, so c'mon."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes- look I _will _drag you there."

"Go away!"

For answer, Sonic grabbed his arm and yanked him off the wall again. "Nope, sorry." Shadow stumbled and had to grab on to the blue hedgehog again.

Sonic waited one second for more resistance just to be fair. On hearing nothing for once, he took the first steps of what was to be a long, slow walk to camp.


	3. This took awhile sorry guys

This is so humiliating.

Shadow had given in and sullenly kept pace with Sonic, from the rock clearing to the cool forest surrounding the ruins. He realized the stupidity of resisting. Lying in the heat for who knows how long had enfeebled his body, dried his throat. Compounded with pain it slowed his mind. Agreeing to anyone's help was a risk, and one his nerves screamed against taking. But a broken leg was a disability he could not accept.

Either was weakness. The first at least had a chance of removing the second.

"We, uh, aren't lost, by the way." The blue hedgehog stopped them both and glanced around nervously at a fork in the path. The hot sun shone down through gaps in the canopy on the hedgehogs. "This is…just the scenic route."

Now if only Sonic would shut up and quit rubbing it in.

"No wait, wait, wait, I know where we are!" Clearly, silence is too much to hope for. Sonic looked back and forth again and started to the right. "There's a river this way."

It took longer than Shadow liked for the movement to register and his working leg to follow suit out of the sun. He realized how much he was leaning on the other hedgehog. In their last match, had he not declared his own superiority? Derided Sonic for relying on others for help?

Shadow pulled away a little to carry more of his own weight. Sonic didn't seem to notice and murmured something else about directions. Wherever they were going, they could not get there fast enough.

Oh geez. From there it was supposed to be a straight shot. Sonic didn't say it, knowing how great Shadow would react. He took a wrong turn or circled around or something and the misstep made them wander around for what felt like an hour.

"Ah, _there_ it is," He sighed with relief on sighting the calm stream. Sonic didn't mind the walking, but he swore Shadow was more of a weight than before. Dragged behind on his one good foot. Should have gotten here faster…

The shallow water rippled its way downstream. A green leaf flew up and down and fluttered a dance on the air. The blue hedgehog regarded these and breathed deeply, tension melting. He'd done what he'd intended to so far, just a little slower. No harm done that he couldn't mend.

"Heh. Dunno if this river has a name or not, but it should." He'd chattered the whole way like this, trying to say 'no nothing's gone wrong we're fine it's all ok'. "Then I could go, 'here we are, the river Sticks', or-"

"Shut up. Release me." Exasperated as usual. But tired.

Sonic let go of the black arm on his shoulder without reply, and Shadow lowered himself to sit parallel to the riverbank. He cupped water with one hand to lap it up.

Now that Sonic thought of it, he was thirsty too. The blue hedgehog dropped to the ground and stuck his muzzle in the water to slurp at it, keeping a firm grip on the bank.

A moment later Sonic sat up again wiping off his face, refreshed. He glanced aside at Shadow still drinking. Can only see his back and half of his grumpy face, but the guy looks a bit livelier now. Less like he'll fall over.

The black hedgehog drank the last from his hand and flicked his wrist to fling the remaining droplets from his glove. He turned his head and torso back to face Sonic, looked at him as a detective might to a criminal under the lamps. "You. What is it you want?"

"Uh…?" Sonic pointed at himself in a brief 'You mean me?' kind of gesture, then glanced aside at the scenery to think of an answer. What was he talking about? "To get moving again, I guess." His feet waggled. "Or a chilidog," he added absently, "Bit hungry."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "No, you idiot. What are_ you_ expecting out of _me?_" He jabbed a finger at Sonic and then himself. "For- helping me." The last few words seemed to catch in his throat, as if unsure how to pronounce them.

Sonic shrugged. "Nothin'." People often ended up injured from Eggman's escapades. So he shuttled the ones he could carry to the hospital after they drove off whatever robot Eggman threw at them that week. Besides it happening to be prickly pear Shadow, this wasn't any different. "S'what anyone would do."

"Hmph." He made that noise a lot. Shadow the hmphhog. His lip curled back in derision. "Nobody does a thing like this without expecting it to further themselves."

Huh. Maybe that psychology stuff Amy said did have something on this guy. "Well, unless you're offering, here's your exception." He hopped to his feet and zipped to Shadow's side. Turning backwards like that looked uncomfortable. "You good to keep going now?"

Shadow twitched and bristled at the sudden movement. His head jerked around to face Sonic's new position. "No. Not until you tell me what you're trying to gain from this."

He just said- Sonic rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I told you, nothing." He repeated, firmer than before, "What would I even ask for? I only know you cuz we fight."

The black hedgehog glanced down and back up. "…Mf. You have a point." He moved back his right leg and shifted his weight on it. Shadow raised a fist to the blue hedgehog and slowly uncurled its fingers. "Know that I won't join you or your little mob."

Could almost_ taste_ the condescension. Well, he was back to being no different.

No wait. He wasn't. This time he let Sonic lead him willingly. Or at least hated it less, for some reason. A couple new ideas about him shuffled around in the back of the blue hedgehog's brain.

"Eh, I know by now that you won't." Sonic took the other hedgehog's tense hand and pulled it over his shoulder again. Shadow pushed up on his right leg with a pained grunt.

The blue hedgehog breathed a quick sorry, and they headed forth again in silence.


End file.
